All 213 tower blocks in Birmingham should be fitted with sprinklers following the Grenfell fire disaster, an MP has insisted.

Birmingham MP Jack Dromey asked Prime Minister Theresa May to ensure sprinklers were fitted to every council-owned high-rise in Birmingham - but she refused.

The Prime Minister said local councils and housing associations should work with fire services to determine what was needed to ensure tower blocks were safe.

Mr Dromey (Lab Erdington) spoke out after Mrs May confirmed that tests had found other towers had been fitted with flammable materials, after cladding was thought to have contributed to the spread of the blaze at Grenfell tower block in London which killed at least 79 people.

Birmingham Council leader John Clancy has said no tower blocks owned by Birmingham City Council have the same cladding as the Grenfell building.

Speaking in the House of Commons, Mr Dromey said: “Fire sprinklers save lives.”

He said an inquest in 2013 “recommended that the Department [for Communities and Local Government] issue guidance to all providers of high rise blocks that they should retrofit sprinklers.

“There’s 213 blocks with 10,000 households in Birmingham.”

He asked Mrs May: “Will she agree now to act on the advice that was given four years ago, retrofit sprinklers and government to pay for it?”

But Mrs May responded to him by saying the inquest had recommended every landlord should “consider” retrofitting sprinklers.

Urban Search and Rescue officers from London Fire Brigade inside the Grenfell Tower in west London after a fire engulfed the 24-storey building on Wednesday morning. (Image: David Mirzoeff/PA Wire)

In response to further questions, she said: “It isn’t as simple as saying that if you simply retrofit sprinklers then that’s the one thing you need to do.”

Mrs May said what was important was ensuring buildings were safe.

“People are making assumptions about the work that needs to be done to ensure that.

“What needs to happen on the ground is the local authority or housing association, the landlord, working with the fire and rescue service to ensure that they can provide that safety.”